


The Continuing story of John and Kayleigh of Car Share - after Series 2 Episode 4 ended - BY JANE GINN

by DennyRose64



Category: Car Share - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-03 08:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10963764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DennyRose64/pseuds/DennyRose64
Summary: This is the ongoing story of John and Kayleigh of Car Share. All flights of fancy are my own. Enjoy.





	The Continuing story of John and Kayleigh of Car Share - after Series 2 Episode 4 ended - BY JANE GINN

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Peter Kay](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Peter+Kay).



As she left the car and left his life, shutting the car door firmly behind her, far more firmly than was necessary, John felt a wave of fear overtake him. It felt like ice, creeping through him like a living thing. He could barely breathe as he watched a heartbroken Kayleigh walk away.  
His Nan, still on the telephone, was wittering on about quiche and Sky TV, things that were suddenly of no importance to him. He knew nothing would ever mean anything to him again without Kayleigh.

The black taxi carrying his future further and further away from him moved slowly through the traffic. Every inch felt like a mile, an insurmountable distance that he could not close. Paralysed with fear, the memory of Charlotte, and the fear of getting hurt again holding him firmly in his seat; he wanted to run to Kayleigh, every fibre of his being straining to leave the confines of his car, the last place she had shared with him. The smell of her perfume still in the air, a tear escaped John’s eye.  
John’s mind wandered back to the night of the work’s party, sharing the journey home with a large Irish smurf and a moment missed. All of a sudden, it dawned on him “She’s still got the bloody Hagrid costume! Another £100 that’s going to cost me. She’s off her head!” he exclaimed aloud.  
“You what John? Whose head?” came his Nan’s voice still on the line.  
“Nobody Nana, go and watch Sky or eat something. There’s quiche in the fridge. I’ll see you in a bit”  
“I want to know about this head that’s come off” she persisted “Is it on the news? Oh I shall have to go and check”  
“Bye Nanna, bye, bye….”

  
Finally, the telephone call cut off and John was left alone with his memories of Kayleigh and emotions that he had no idea what to do with without her.  
“You complete tool”, he thought, “Why couldn’t you just have told her. Why couldn’t she just have stayed in the car for a few more minutes? Bloody radio station. Forever FM…my arse! No forever about it”

 

 

  
Looking down at the radio he gave a real look of disapproval that he hoped could be felt back at the radio station. When he looked back up the taxi was gone, carrying Kayleigh towards a life without him. The traffic had cleared and he had missed his opportunity to stride across the cars that clogged the road to get to her, to open the taxi door and take her into his arms just as he had imagined doing a few moments ago had he been a stronger man. Then in the distance John saw a black taxi. “That’s it” he thought, pressing the accelerator and crunching through the gears “She’s going to cost me a new bloody gear box too at this rate” He caught himself smiling as he remembered how she had once before said “It’s a gear box John, not a jukebox” and how infectious her laughter that followed had been. “By god, she’s beautiful,” he thought, “More than a little crazy, with a kind of fuzzy logic. No. Not fuzzy. Fluffy. That was it, fluffy logic. But beautiful”

  
“Shit for brains” he said aloud. The cyclist alongside heard through the car’s open window and shot John a dirty look. “She’s still getting me in bother here” he said “Even when she’s not in the car” But he knew above all else that Kayleigh was ‘The One’ and that wasn’t about to change no matter the cost.

  
Down side road after side road John followed the taxi, followed Kayleigh, all the while gaining ground. His heart was pounding as he thought of what he was doing and an excitement coursed through him. Finally he was right behind the taxi and coming to a wide bend in the road where he could try to force the driver to pull over. As they came to the bend and John prepared to make the last push that would bring her back to him the taxi pulled over. A passenger got in. John slammed on the brakes.  He hadn’t been expecting that! “Where’s Kayleigh?” he thought panicking, now realising why the taxi had taken a strange route if it was heading to their Mandy’s house. It was because Kayleigh had already got out. He had been so intent on catching up with it he hadn’t thought to look to see if she was still in the taxi. His stomach turned. He heard a car horn beeping angrily and realised that he had blocked the taxi into the kerb. John feebly raised his hand in apology and moved slowly forward, for once having no direction in his life. ‘Hold Me Now’ by The Thompson Twins played on the radio and John felt the fear turn to pain in his heart. “This can’t be happening” he muttered as he began driving towards his home feeling alone for the first time in a long time.

 

**Chapter Two**

  
Kayleigh stole a look back at the car to see if John was getting out, hoping he would make all this seem like a bad dream, but all she could see was him waving his arms around and mouthing the words “Where you going? You’re missing it”. All she could feel was that she was missing him, yet it had only been a few moments.

  
The empty black taxi in the traffic seemed like the obvious place to be until she could decide what to do now. “Frig-a-dig. How could I have been so wrong”. Sitting in the taxi, the sound of ‘Kayleigh’ by Marillion on the radio adding insult to injury, hurting her more than she thought possible. She could hardly bear to listen. “Where to, love?” the taxi driver asked. “Just drive please. I’ll tell you when to stop” she replied quietly, her voice breaking and with tears running down her face.

  
Slowly the taxi moved forward in the traffic until the road became clear and it carried her further away from John. Kayleigh looked through the rear window and saw the car she had shared with John becoming smaller in the distance behind her. Then he was gone. After a mile or two, she had no idea how long it had been, she asked the taxi driver to stop and let her out. It was a busy area, with people going about their commute unaware of her pain. She felt she needed the hustle and bustle, and the anonymity it brought.

  
Deciding to walk home, she saw the taxi head off down a side street. Then a car like John’s following in its wake. But it couldn’t be, he made that quite clear, hadn’t he?

  
Kayleigh began the first, of what she thought would be many, commutes home alone to her sister Mandy’s house, where she knew Steve would still be outside tinkering with his bike like the whole world had not just spun off its axis. All the while her mind wandered back to the journeys she and John had shared.  “Big gay mute” she muttered and smiled despite herself. When the 'missed moment' on the night of the works party forced it’s way to the front of her mind she winced, the pain inside her like a knife. “Why did I answer the phone?” She knew that when she had answered the phone to Elsie, after he had asked her not to she had made a mistake. A mistake that had brought her to where she was now. They had been so close, or so she thought, to admitting what had been building up between them for many weeks. The feelings between them were almost tangible, yet largely unspoken, save for a few comments, which she was sure she hadn’t misunderstood. Her usually bright, smiling face, sad, but with determination in her eyes, she struck out for home. “Never give up,” she thought “Never give up”.

  
**Chapter Three**

  
After John had seen his Nan safely home, fending off yet more questions about heads coming off, he returned to his once comfortable home. But today he felt no comfort there. He had Sky TV, he had quiche, he had his Nutribullet but he had no Kayleigh. It was as if the spark that she had ignited in him the first time she got in his car, the morning she had introduced herself to his life by covering him with urine; a morning that could so easily have been the one and only shared journey had he not felt an instant attraction to her, had gone out. There was little light in his small world tonight, a situation John vowed to change.

  
The night passed slowly, minutes feeling like hours, hours like days. All of his phone calls and messages went unanswered. He needed to tell her in person how he felt, he needed her to pick up the phone, just like she did when Elsie called. Like she did when he had pleaded with her not to. That was the moment they should have shared. Trying not to harbour any grudge against Elsie, who frequently stated “I’m saying nothing” but in reality said an awful bloody lot. He set out for Kayleigh’s house in the morning, his heart pounding, hoping she would be waiting for him as she had every day for as long as he cared to remember. Their favourite radio station played timeless tunes that on any other day they would have enjoyed together but today held little pleasure for him. The gift he had for Kayleigh was on the empty seat where she would have been. It had been something he already had for her but had just never got around to giving her. Now was as good a time as any. Better in fact. It was the only time.  
 As he pulled up outside the house he saw Steve with his beloved motorbike, hands covered in oil as always. Steve looked up towards John “Why couldn’t you be honest with her John? Surely you had some idea how she felt?” “Where is she Steve?” John said his face falling with the realisation that she was not there for him as she always had been. “Gone mate, left early.” Steve replied seeing the emotion in John’s eyes. “ Look, she may be as mad as a box of frogs, but you had a good one there. Don’t waste it.”  
John held out the small padded envelope to Steve and said “Could you give this to her when you see her? It’s important. She will understand when she sees what’s in it.” John hoped more than believed that this were true. He somehow knew that she would avoid seeing him, not giving him the chance to say how wrong he had been.

  
He arrived at work and as he walked through the staff door he was nearly run down by a determined Elsie who was making her way out to intercept him. “John, John, now you know I’m not a gossip” she said tapping the side of her nose “But what have you done to our Kayleigh? She’s lost her sparkle. We all heard the radio about putting her in a corner. I love a bit of dirty dancing myself you know John” she winked “Sure, I won’t tell anybody, but it’s the talk of the shop that you didn’t come in together today” John looked at Elsie and thought sarcastically “Why don’t you just phone her,” but he said nothing and walked away leaving Elsie staring after him none the wiser. The fact that Kayleigh had chosen not to talk to anyone else about things gave him the first glimmer of hope.

  
The day dragged by with only a couple of glimpses of Kayleigh, looking lost and hurt, a side of her he had never seen before and one that he hoped he could mend.

With each glimpse a sharp pain ran through him alongside the certain knowledge that she was ‘The One’. The one he had been waiting for and the one that he had let go.

 

**Chapter Four**

  
It had been a long day fending off question after question from Elsie. Kayleigh had hardly seen John but when she had, and she had seen what she thought was a sadness to him, a warmth spread through her and she allowed herself to hope. The commute home was uneventful. She scrolled through the messages on her phone, mostly from John, mostly telling her to call him. But why would she after she had put her heart on the line for him and he had rejected her? Now, though, with a small glimmer of hope inside, she wondered if she should call him. What would she say? No, she needed a bit of time to think, so she decided to wait at least until she was home. Not least she wanted to know what Elsie meant by an announcement on the radio and not being put in the corner! She hardly dared believe.

  
“It’s a wonder Steve doesn’t sleep out here” Kayleigh thought as she arrived home and saw him once again in the front drive ‘fixing’ his bike. Steve smiled at her and said “ I’ve got something for you”. “Give over, you’re my sister’s husband” she replied, a poor attempt at banter. He held out the padded envelope, now covered with oily fingerprints and said “John left this for you when he came to pick you up this morning. He said you’d understand when you opened it.” Kayleigh was hit by a wave of shock. Happy but shock nonetheless. John had been here!

  
She took the envelope and put it in her handbag feigning disinterest. But she was fooling no-one, least of all Steve who had taken a look inside the envelope and knew what John had sent.

  
 Once inside the house and safely alone in her room she took out the envelope. It was a CD in a see through case. John had written on the disc. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac 1977. She smiled remembering John’s enthusiasm the day he talked about the album. “What? Rumours? One of the best albums in’t whole wide world. I’ll burn you a copy. Tonight!” There was also a small handwritten note saying “Play track 8. I hope you understand. I love you. John xx”

  
She put the disc in the cd player, selected track 8 and listened, happiness flooding through her. The lyrics made everything clear, all the things that John was scared to feel, scared to say. She knew.

 

Sweet wonderful you,  
You make me happy with the things you do,  
Oh, can it be so,  
This feeling follows me wherever I go.

I never did believe in miracles,  
But I've a feeling it's time to try.  
I never did believe in the ways of magic,  
But I'm beginning to wonder why.

I never did believe in miracles,  
But I've a feeling it's time to try.  
I never did believe in the ways of magic,  
But I'm beginning to wonder why.

  
Don't, don't break the spell,  
It would be different and you know it will,  
You, you make loving fun,  
And I don't have to tell you but you're the only one.

You, you make loving fun  
(It's all I want to do)  
You, you make loving fun  
(It's all I want to do)  
You, you make loving fun  
(It's all I want to do)  
You, you make loving fun  
(It's all I want to do)

 

She could hear music coming from outside the house. Loud music. It sounded like the same song she had given to John before she moved here. Kayleigh went to the bedroom window and, careful not to knock over the unlit heart lamp that John had given her, looked outside to see him standing by his car, stereo blaring. He was standing looking up at her with his arms wide open unaware of the neighbours’ curtains twitching. The words of the song drifted up “Pure and simple, I’ll be there for you”.

  
 John panicked as Kayleigh backed away from the window thinking he had lost her for good. “Mother of Pearl!” he thought. But just then he saw the red heart lamp come to life and flash rhythmically in front of Kayleigh who had returned to the window and was now smiling. The rhythm of the lamp was like the beating of her heart that belonged to John.

  
John smiled up at her, glad he had gone one step further, towards this beautiful, funny woman and thought “I really should tell her not to have a red lamp in the window. It looks like a knocking shop. But maybe not just yet.”    

    
The End? No, the beginning.


End file.
